Guitar installation with connectors

[soggybag]

I'm thinking about changing some pickups in a guitar. Rather than soldering all of the wires, in light of the fact that I may change the pickups again - I'm like that, I was thinking about using some sort of connectors with a small PCB.

Then I thought, I'm not that smart, some smart person has probably already done something like this. I have yet to find anything like this. So I thought I'd post here for some ideas.

[petemoore]

  I scalloped out a ditch in the wood of a guitar [neatly~ with circular saw], which fascilitated the ability to simply slide the PU/mounting ring out, and an RCA jack mounted solid in a hole, on the other side of the strings.
  Worked fine, I found the PU I liked to leave in there anyway...
  That was when I was more into distorters with HB's, didn't take long to find the preferred HB [since I had a choice of one or the other HB...
  These days, I'm more into SC's and 'wierd' coils [I'd have called anything else 'wierd' when I was into medium to med-high output HB's.

[FiveseveN]

Oh yes, the smart people at EMG are using such a system (Quik-Connect™) for all their pickups, tone controls, boosters etc.: http://www.emginc.com/
Of course the Quik-Connect™ is just your average header and plug connector.

[PRR]

> some smart person has probably already done something like this

Connectors are the MOST trouble-prone part of an electronic system.

Most guitarists never change their pickups.

With practice, you can solder a few wires faster than you can bust-apart some of the more wretched connectors.

That's why you "never" see it.

> the smart people at EMG are using such a system

And "never" sometimes means there is a small but crying market for the idea. And the "average header and plug connector", in protected situations (inside a PC) seems to be shockingly reliable. If you are just gimmicking *your own* guitars, I suggest you plagiarize their whole system: plugs and pinouts. DigiKey has every shape count and sex of those connectors.

[zombiwoof]

Personally, I would just solder the pickups in, but in newer production Gibsons they are using pc-board mounted pots and the pickups are connected using some sort of Molex connectors, so it is being done by some companies.  If your guitar doesn't already have this kind of setup, though, I would suggest just soldering them.

Al

[omni1]

You right is has been done. First with the Toneshaper product at www.acmeguitarworks.com/ToneShaper-for-Stratocaster-P2032C218.aspx and second with the Serenity product by www.santellansounds.com. One is a tool for getting the most from your pickups and the second in a wiring kit.